Meet Hanna La Salvia of Shleepyhans in Sherman Oaks

Hanna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today? I like to think that I got serious with shooting and editing videos in 2015 when my best friend and I started our first youtube channel together by the name of “por su arte” (which we still have!) The idea was simply to make videos for each other after our friendship became long distance and to create a safe place where we could explore our mutual love for videography. Just a cute hobby… or so I thought.

It didn’t really hit me how important this project was until I landed my first internship ever with Sisilia Piring, a fashion photographer I looked up to. I got that job just one year after starting my channel solely because she felt a connection to the content I made on it. Working with Sisilia opened my whole view on working freelance in the creative industry of LA. I got a huge taste for what I was capable of and I felt less scared to pursue photography on my own, which is a career I never expected myself to get into.

Through Sisilia, I met Puno Puno, the founder of ilovecreatives.com and soon became her assistant for everything video and photo related. This is where my creative life went on overdrive. Puno’s way of working was unlike anything I was used to before. She was the first person I had ever met who trusted my vision completely from day one and never gave me too much direction either, which forced me to figure things out on my own. The time I spent with her allowed me to push myself further into my curiosity and just having that trust from one person helped me grow my confidence in myself and my work. I now have been working as a freelance photographer and videographer for almost two years now and it has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of my life thus far.

Has it been a smooth road? Definitely not smooth. As I’m sure, many people know, working for yourself is amazing in so many ways but can also be incredibly challenging and exhausting. Setting boundaries has been the toughest part of freelance. Since I never have a time to “clock out,” its easy to let work take over my life. There’s also the unpredictability of what your schedule will look like in the next few days, weeks or months and the unstable aspect of freelance can be quite unsettling.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Shleepyhans – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others. As a brand, I aim to celebrate POC, young artists and local, sustainable businesses through my photography and visual storytelling. Highlighting the beauty and culture of my subjects in soft and dreamy ways has become my style over the past few months and I’m proud to be creating content that can inspire and contribute to a more meaningful message at the end of the day.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least? My favorite thing about this city is the mindset of the community around me. Coming straight from South Florida, I never knew how I could make my passions into a career until I moved here. People are just more willing to collaborate, work and make amazing things just for the sake of it. Knowing that I can find a model, stylist or set designer all in one area makes me so content. However, I will never get down with how much time I lose sitting in a car. If the city had solid public transportation, I would never leave.